Who’s the Lord of the Rings?

That’s our question for the upcoming weekend. As a status update for the Microsoft 365 Roadmap column names today, the column is named “Tags – Release Phase.” Yea!

There is a chance that we introduce a new category called “Daily column name changes in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap” if Microsoft will continue their column naming strategy.

For your reference:

On 09/25/2019, a new column appeared in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap called “Tags – Customer Ring.” This might help to find out where in the Microsoft Release Cycle a Roadmap item can be found.

On 10/09/2019, the new column was renamed to “Tags – Release Phase”.

On 10/10/2019, the new column was renamed back to “Tags – Customer Ring.”

And by today, 10/11/2019, the new column was renamed to “Tags – Release Phase.”

We’ve given up to try to find out if there is any value in it. Maybe it depends on who within Microsoft is publishing the list. Who knows.

Besides this, Microsoft has added over time more and more options for this new column. At the moment, there are these values:

Insider

Preview

Limited Availability

Targeted Release

Targeted Release (Select People)

Targeted Release (Entire Organization)

Monthly Channel (Targeted)

Monthly Channel (Standard)

General Availability

And the values are not unique. For example, take a look at Roadmap Item 52833:

This Item has the release phase General Availability, Targeted Release (Select People), Targeted Release, and Preview.

Besides, the Status is “In development.” We ask our selves: what we’re missing to make any sense of this information?

Back to the initial question: Who is the Lord of the Rings?

As most of us, handling the raw Microsoft information, this would be interesting. But we have no clue. Microsoft always tells its customers that evergreen management can and should be processed via the official sources. So the Microsoft Office 365 Roadmap and the Message Center are the best sources we have, regardless of the quality provided.

If the raw Microsoft data is as reliable as we see it today, It the best point to join cloudscout.one. Our customers don’t see forth and back in the combined roadmap. So it’s easy for them to continue to work on the content and the upcoming changes.